Violence against women, much remains unresolved in Latin America

 By Cira Rodriguez Cesar *Havana (Prensa Latina) Latin America has much to resolve in combating violence against women, because in their countries 90 percent of cases go unpunished, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

  The reasons are many: fear and silence victims, often economically dependent on those who abuse the trust in the authorities is low and not all women dominate the Castilian, the official language.
Find people you go is difficult when the issue is so fraught with taboos, as the culture of some sites accept domestic violence.
For these reasons, currently one in three women in the region have some form of physical violence and 16 percent have been victims of sexual violence sometime in their life, according to investigations by the United Nations (UN).
Despite some progress in gender equality, domestic violence against women is still common in Latin America, according to Moni Pizani, representative of UN Women for the continent.
Such figures appear in the report The Progress of Women in the World, which states that violence against females occurs even though 97 percent of the countries of the region have passed laws against gender bullying .
Alongside these legal actions, abuse is slowly enjoying less social acceptance by not justified in any case, for example, that a man beats his wife, even though many think otherwise.
Less than half of the approved legislation explicitly criminalizing violence within marriage.
However, the picture is changing: women now dare to denounce the wrongs and outrages, but the numbers are very high and confirm that policies are needed, resources and codes to ensure a better representation of female society.
UN Women For government institutions, police and the courts must ensure the presence of women in parliament, in the first line of the judiciary and the rest of political, social and economic, which would help to better respect of their rights.
WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION
Another common violation is discrimination in the workplace. Today 53 percent of the workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean is made up of women, who are also mostly in the universities.
However, the wage gap is significant and in some countries to receive a salary 40 percent lower than a man for the same job.
Women, with few exceptions, are relegated to secondary positions, lower levels of decision making, do not have social security and there is discrimination against pregnant or lactating.
Also, still do not have equality with men in high places, for example, the percentage of women in parliament currently is 19.5 percent and are underrepresented in the ministries of the political and economical, according to figures from UN Women.
Hence it can be said that violence against females is structural and is a violation of their human rights, which is itself a manifestation of the social hierarchy in which men are benefited over them, and to keep them subordinate that use different mechanisms of aggression.
Psychologists, sociologists and political scientists agree that this hierarchy is the product of cultural processes embedded in societies, resulted in undervaluation-assimilated by man, even for a large number of women-that ideologically justify discrimination, exclusion and systematic violence, both private and public.
In this context are particularly important women's organizations who report, oppose and fight against these concepts in all spheres of society, with a stubborn resistance in all corners of the continent.
The advances that have been taken into the laws of many countries are the result of the efforts of these organizations, human rights organizations and many governments in the region, identified with the full and equal participation of women in the work of their nations .
In these efforts stands the creation of Ministries of Women and female councils in neighborhoods and villages in countries like Peru and Venezuela, in the latter very identified and integrated development of the social missions of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Venezuela created the 1999 National Women's Institute in 2007 enacted the Organic Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence, and finally, in 2009, the Ministry of People's Power for Women and Gender Equality .
It also stands for the establishment by the Attorney General of the Republic of 52 special prosecutors nationwide, to receive complaints of domestic violence cases, in addition to the Supreme Court approved court of violence against women in seven states and eight in Caracas.
In Peru, the ministry works since 1996, which in 2007 passed the Equal Opportunity Act to fix at all levels of government powers and equal opportunity, as the Andean country is the fourth in a list of 18 Latin American and Caribbean where women suffer wage discrimination.
COMPLEXITY AND DEPTH
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimates that the cost of domestic violence is 15 billion dollars in Latin America, which represents an investment of two percent annual gross domestic product to address their effects.
These expenses include services to treat and support victims and their children and prosecution of perpetrators; also take into account the loss of employment and productivity, as well as costs associated with human pain and suffering.
In general, all forms of violence against women have very high costs on the health of women, who have not yet been sufficiently dimensioned.
On average, it is estimated that women victims of this type of bullying need more surgery, hospitalization, medical care, medications and treatments post-traumatic psychiatric, others with an illness or disease.
Is urgently needed to recognize the complexity and magnitude of this phenomenon that takes different faces: sexual abuse, rape and incest, abuse in relationships, threats and insults, harassment and sexual coercion, sexual exploitation and trafficking, slavery and psychological violence and economic .
To this were added in recent years the violence linked to communications technology, for example, pornography and pedophile rings online.
All, without exception, have a high cost in terms of the overall health of the women affected, with damage can be immediate and in many cases are fatal or even for life.
In fact, the number of murders of women has grown in recent years in Latin America and the Caribbean and Mexico and Guatemala (the most emblematic cases), Chile, Costa Rica and Argentina, among others.
Thus, violence against this population sector is not limited to culture, region or country, or a particular type of women. Its roots lie in historically unequal before man and persistent discrimination.
For the serious health effects, as well as the incidence and causes severe damage in society, violence against women has been declared a public health problem.
And consider the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, among others, stop being just a serious violation of human rights under international treaties.
* Editor's South American journalist of Prensa Latina.